Barrymore pool victim’s father issues ‘final appeal’
THE father of a man found dead in Michael Barrymore’s swimming pool 20 years ago has made a “final appeal” for witnesses after being told he has terminal cancer.
Terry Lubbock, whose 31-yearold son Stuart was found in a pool following a party at Mr Barrymore’s then home in Roydon, Essex, on March 31, 2001, wants a fresh inquest and says his time is “running out”.
Mr Lubbock (76) of Harlow, Essex, said yesterday that he wanted anyone with information to contact his lawyers.
“We would like old witnesses to come forward and tell the truth,” he said in a social media appeal .“for me the clock is ticking and time is running out. This will be my final appeal.”
Mr Lubbock told journalists in February that he had terminal cancer and doctors had told him he had months to live.
A coroner recorded an open verdict after an inquest in 2002, and three years ago the then-attorney general, Jeremy Wright, refused to give Mr Lubbock the go-ahead to make an application to the High Court for a second inquest.
But Mr Lubbock says a fresh Essex Police appeal, which coincided with the broadcast of a Channel 4 documentary, Barrymore: The Body In The Pool, in February 2020, has changed the landscape. Mr Lubbock says he would like police to tell an inquest jury why they believe that.
He says lawyers have yet to formally ask Attorney General Michael Ellis to give the go-ahead for a new inquest application.
No-one has been charged with any offence in relation to Stuart Lubbock’s death. Mr Barrymore, now 68, was arrested in 2007 but never charged with any offence.
A 50-year-old man arrested on suspicion of the murder and indecent assault of Stuart Lubbock was recently released under investigation by Essex Police. He was arrested in Cheshire on March 17 and subsequently released on bail.